Machine's Reach
Built out of the ruins of a pre-war factory, Machine’s Reach is the forward base for the Exaxes Warband in the Flint River region. Intended to be their base of operations for their conquest of the Foundry, the facility now serves as their last remaining bastion in the state. History Before the war, the facility was a consumer electronics factory owned by Zeta Tech. One of the company’s more profitable divisions, the factory produced various devices such as radios, televisions and holotape players. In the last decade before the war, it was retooled to produce a single product, the Zeta-Tech ZX-280 terminal, a personal computer intended to rival RobCo’s offerings in the market. However, the system was generally poorly received and suffered from performance issues (In truth, the ZX-280 was a loss-leader intended to spur development in other fields; however, those programs never came to fruition before the Great War). On the morning of October 23rd, 2077, the factory was largely empty, with much of the staff away for the weekend. When shift manager Dwayne Zuckuss received word of the attack, he immediately initiated the emergency protocols in his operations manual, sealing the factory and giving the on-site security staff orders to shoot any intruders on sight. Not directly hit, the factory survived the initial conflict intact. Almost immediately, it was besieged by desperate survivors of the conflagration who were looking for shelter. As per orders, the guards and their defense turrets opened fire, cutting down any who dared approach. Inside, Zuckuss quietly awaited further orders from Zeta Tech CEO Oxen, not knowing if he had even survived the conflict, but also determined to ensure that his orders were carried out regardless of the situation. A week later with no word, Zuckuss had to assume that Oxen was either dead or unable to make contact, and that he was to proceed with the second stage of the lockdown. He quietly purged all information from the factory’s computer system, sealed its R&D wing, poisoned the emergency water supply and left through a concealed entrance in the factory’s basement. As expected, the security staff all perished from the poison within the next twenty-four hours. Zuckuss himself would not make it far, being shot by a looter only a few hours after leaving the factory. Left physically intact, the factory was largely overlooked as the secondary effects of the nuclear war set in. Nuclear winter, radiation storms and the black rain killed off most of the human population of the region, while contaminated runoff poisoned the Flint River itself. Decades would pass before the first humans would set foot inside the factory, being a group of nomads passing through the region in the 2130s. They found the building to be undamaged, even if its systems were all offline, and its interior was festooned with the skeletons of the dead security staff. While at first the inhabitants were only temporary, as the population of the Flint River region grew, the abandoned factory began to look more and more lucrative to those passing through. At first the facility was sporadically occupied by scavengers who took what they could to sell on to others. Then, as the conflicts in the region ramped up, the factory was being used more and more frequently and on a more permanent basis by those seeking shelter from the violence. The factory would change hands numerous times over the decades with the ebb and flow of violence in the region. The constant conflict meant that there was very little permanence to its inhabitants, giving them little time to establish themselves before being forced to fight for their lives. Other factors also would work against them, with disease outbreaks and starvation proving to be just as lethal as bullets. While the factory itself remained intact during this time, its interior degraded through conflict and neglect, reducing much of its machinery to little more then junk. Permanence would not come to the facility until 2282, when the Exaxes Warband arrived in the region. Prior to their invasion, their scouts had identified the factory as a prime base of operations, being a solid, well-fortified structure that could shelter and house their forces. That it might still have functioning pre-war technology inside it was an added incentive. Descending on the factory, the Exaxes killed the raiders who were using it at the time, claiming it for their own. Renaming it Machine’s Reach, the Exaxes set about making the facility their own. At first they were disappointed with just how poor condition the factory was in. There was little of any use, with the facility having little apparent value outside of its function as a shelter. It was only after they began a more thorough investigation of the facility that they discovered its true worth. Penetrating the sealed R&D wing, they found a stash of high-tech equipment and components that had remained untouched since the Great War. Celebrating their find, the Exaxes immediately put this bounty to use in upgrades and modifications to a number of their war robots. Having established themselves, the Exaxes used Zero Point as a base of operations from which to build their alliance against the Foundry. Machine’s Reach was used as a demonstration of their power, proof of their ability to control the region and build something from the wastes. They sold the alliance on the promise that those that supported them could have the same, bringing permanence and control to their uncertain, chaotic, violent lives. While Machine’s Reach itself played no direct part in the Flint River War, it served as the Exaxes’ command centre and base of operations throughout. As the pace of the war stagnated and then stalled, the Exaxes used Machine’s Reach to continue to refit their troops, allow the injured to recuperate and, where possible, repair and even upgrade their robots. This gave them a logistical base that their allies lacked, but also meant that as the conflict wore on, the Exaxes were shouldering more and more of the fighting. After their defeat, Machine’s Reach also served as a rallying point for their forces, while also allowing for some demarcation from their former allies. The Exaxes could use it as shelter from the fallout, but nobody else. In many cases, those former allies were driven back at gunpoint, or simply attacked by Decimator soldiers or robots. This served to isolate them from their former allies, ensuring that they could horde what was left of their depleted resources for themselves. For the last three years, Machine’s Reach has served as the Exaxes fortress home in the Flint River, allowing them to retain a toehold in the region. For the moment, its primary function has been in the role of intelligence, serving as a base of operations for missions aimed at gathering more information about the Foundry, the Flint River region and even the Detroit Wasteland. For the moment, the Exaxes leadership have found this to be valuable enough to continue justifying Machine’s Reach’s existence as insurance against any future moves. Description The exterior design of Machine’s Reach is akin to that of many other pre-war factories; a massive, slab-sided concrete edifice, designed for functionality over any sense of aesthetics. While suffering from the ravages of time and showing signs of decades of violence, the factory’s exterior has not changed over the years, and remains mostly as it was pre-war. The Exaxes did make some cosmetic changes by placing banners and their techno-totems made from destroyed robots on it, but are still relatively minor overall. The interior of the structure is another matter. Over the years, much of the machinery has been destroyed, scavenged, scrapped or just simply decayed away to uselessness. When the Exaxes took over the factory, they found a tangled mess of equipment, most of which was nothing more then junk. In the years since, they have been progressively scrapping what’s left and repurposing it for materials and even robot parts. Far more knowledgeable and technically capable then the prior inhabitants, the Exaxes also set up generators to provide power, and purifiers to ensure a steady stream of clean water. Conversely, the sealed R&D section survived entirely intact, and was untouched until the Exaxes found it. While it does not have much in the way of manufacturing equipment, it also served as a treasure trove of high-tech parts and equipment that the Exaxes put to good use. The facility has been converted into a robotics lab, and is used to maintain and support their various Automatons. Ironically, unbeknownst to them, the lab also contains the facility’s greatest weakness. The lab provides access to a secret escape tunnel that in turn exits through a waste pipe. Should somebody discover this, it would potentially allow them to enter and leave the factory undetected. Population Machine’s Reach is the largest single outpost of the Exaxes (or, for that matter, any of the Decimator warbands) in Michigan. The entire population of the facility is made up of members of the Exaxes warband, whether they be warriors, scouts, technicians or dependants. These numbers also include a substantial amount of captured slaves who are used for labour, many of which are taken from the Exaxes’ former allies. While the Exaxes themselves are entirely human, the slave population includes both humans and Ghouls. A substantial portion of this population are transitory, only stopping off at the facility between long-term scouting operations, or messengers running back and forth to Zero Point. In addition to its live population, the facility also supports a number of robots used by the Warband. The Exaxes had hoped to find salvageable pre-war Robots at the facility, but instead were disappointed to discover that they had all been long ago destroyed. Notable Inhabitants Kei Henderson Once an up-and-coming member of the Exaxes, Kei Henderson is the current commander of Machine’s Reach and a member of the Warband’s inner circle. The child of two second generation Exaxes members, in his youth Kei displayed an impulsive recklessness that was more like that of the Nebo warband. Over time, he tempered this passion, turning it into a drive that saw him rise through the ranks, while also developing a skill for unconventional tactics that often left his opponents guessing. Kei was one of the Exaxes’ leaders during the Flint River War, but even then his tactical acumen and unpredictable nature could not turn the tide of the conflict. At the end of the war, he was given command of their outpost, a promotion he knew that was just as much reward as it was punishment. Consequently, he has done what he can to prove Machine’s Reach’s worth, knowing that it’s future, and his own, rides on the outcome of his actions. Murder-Bot 9000 Despite their technological affinity and quasi-mythical relationship with technology, the Exaxes still view robots as being non-sentient tools for their own use. Even then, however, there are some robots within their ranks who are seen as being ‘honoured’ for whatever reason. Usually, this is reserved for those that are particularly successful, or those that are long-lived. Murder-Bot 9000 is a rare case of being both. First assembled in 2241 by master roboticist Dave Ross, it has served in every Exaxes conflict since, up to and including the Flint River war. While obstinately a non-sentient war robot, there are some who claim that Murder-Bot 9000 is deliberately malicious, and enjoys inflicting pain and killing. They state that the robot is overly aggressive, and has in past deliberately aimed to maim or wound rather then kill. However, weather this is a glitch in its programming or just simply the Exaxes tendency to over-anthropomorphise robots and prescribe human behaviours to them remains unclear. Category:Places Category:Communities Category:Michigan